Scholar on Venezuela Refugee Crisis: More Creative Approaches Needed

Many Venezuelans are fleeing their country in droves in order to escape the bleak economic outlook. Neighbouring countries are now preparing for an influx of migrants, with some such as Ecuador denying those without passports entry. Sputnik discussed the situation with Luis Gomez Romero, Lecturer in Law at the University Of Wollongong for more.

Sputnik: What has caused this Venezuelan refugee crisis?

Luis Gomez Romero: The situation in Venezuela has been worsening constantly, so all the neighbouring countries are experiencing pressure from migration. Colombia has received around 800,000 migrants in recent months and Ecuador receives 4,000 Venezuela's refugees per day. This is why they demanded Venezuelans to show passports so they can access or cross the border only with an id and Peru will do the same in the following weeks, in Brazil troops have been sent to the border, so one way of reading it is that this is an immigration crisis. But immigration is a reality in nowadays so we need more creative approaches to this, such as one that has been developed and proposed to UN a few weeks ago.

Luis Gomez Romero: This is something that those who oppose Maduro will not be happy to hear, but he can resist a lot more as long as he has the support of the army and he seems to have this support. As long as the opposition remains fractured without an effective way of organizing the people, it seems that Maduro can still retain power for a long time. This is the tragedy of Venezuelans — the country has been kidnapped by what was once a promise of justice and revolution and now it has turned into an oppressive regime.

The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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